July 22, 2012

Red Umbrella-I'm Done!!

Technically, this post is a week past due. A week and two days past due to be precise. On Friday, July 13, I sat in the chemo chair for the last time (pre-baby for sure, but hopefully for good!!). See these faces? Yep, that's pretty much how they looked thru the entire three-hour process. We're ecstatic!

I wasn't home post-chemo for more than 10 minutes when a knock at the door revealed this:

I know. Beautiful, aren't they!!??!! WM surprised me with a dozen sunflowers (my absolute favorite) for each round of chemo. Six dozen sunflowers!!! That man spoils me rotten. Rotten!! My two helpers were quick to get the stems cut and the blooms into vases. They were strewn about the house all week. Never before have I had flowers in practically every room in the house. Even Channing selected a blossom to put on the dresser in his room.

So, what now? Well, I do have an appointment at the end of August to talk to my surgeon, Dr. O'Leary with regard to my double mastectomy. When, with a newborn and a preschooler, is that going to be 'convenient'? [Ahem.] After the little guy's arrival, I will finally have the MRI that most cancer patients would have started their course of care with. That is, at this point, all I know.

Can I be honest? I think I'm going to miss being bald. Really. I liked it. My hair never did totally fall out. It was just impossibly thin & gross. I shaved my head every few days with an electric razor. I burst into fits of uncontrollable giggles the night before my last chemo, having one of those 'never in my lifetime...' moments. I was shaving my head in preparation to go out for dinner with WM & his family. Shaving. My. Head. for a date of sorts. You know, like putting on make-up and jewelry. I found it hysterical.

A special thanks to my sister, Sarah, & her husband, Jesse, who let us crash their dinner the other night so that post-meal, Sarah could take a couple of pictures for me. I needed a red umbrella shot for this post. She captured it just perfectly-a little umbrella, a lotta belly.